I’ve Got Nothing But Love For You

“Apple is the best!” is a phrase I hear very often, especially from one of my very good friends who shall remain nameless, and it amazes me every time I hear it at how Apple has been able to cultivate such a loyal fan base. To those of you who are not Apple users, this devout loyalty towards a brand may seem incredibly annoying, with various myths surrounding the brand being rather inaccurate (I remember one devotee telling me that Apple’s are so superior to the competition that it is impossible for an Apple computer to get a virus). It’s funny because whenever I hear an Apple user profess their love for their Apple products all I hear is this song in my head:

But one simply cannot deny that the brand has struck a chord with a large group of people around the world, establishing itself as possibly the pre-eminent Lifestyle Brand. So, what exactly is a Lifestyle Brand and how did Apple develop such strong brand loyalty?

The word “lifestyle” is often thrown around quite liberally today in a product sense. Many companies will often use the term believing that by selling a range of products, their line automatically constitutes a ‘lifestyle’. Just because a company sells shoes, clothing, and fragrances with a similar stylistic code, does not make this a lifestyle brand. Neither does a brand of alcohol, such as Grey Goose, that is consumed in situations that may help showcase how you live your life, constitute a lifestyle brand. In reality, a lifestyle brand must do more than offer a collection of items that can help demonstrate a look, or be a product you use as you live your life – it must shape your life, and offer a point of view on the world that you adhere to. More specifically:

“Lifestyle Brands describe who we are, what we believe, what tribe we belong to. They communicate our status and our aspirations. They indicate the way we deal with our life and sometimes reflect our own conscience.”[i]

Therefore, a lifestyle brand does not merely take part in how you choose to live your life, it helps define how you live your life, and offers solutions for the life you wish to lead.

In Apple’s case, its rallying cry has been to “Think Different” and it has called out to those who yearn for a different experience with different products that allow Apple followers to be different and be able to express ourselves through our products (at the time this call was created, Apple was only beginning to venture out of the personal computer market where it had less than 5% market share). In calling for the customers to “Think Different” Apple then proceeded to demonstrate how they envision to “be different” by changing the way technology brands communicate with their customers.

Prior to 2001, tech companies advertised their products by touting their technological power, and flaunted their superior or different specifications – “Now with a Pentium Duo-Core processor”. The problem was that to the average customer, this message didn’t explain how our lives could be improved by these technological advances.

Apple changed all that by not talking about the specifications at all, instead focusing on what their products could do for us, the consumer, and help us more easily express ourselves. Whenever Apple came out with a new product, Steve Jobs would have a presentation where he would explain how our lives would now be improved because of his new product. By utilizing this approach, customers could easily understand how Apple products can help us express our uniqueness; all while the competition struggled to identify with its audience, despite potential technological superiority.

Once Apple had succeeded in developing their identity as a brand that would enable us to “Think Different”, they developed more products that could help us live this mantra in other areas of life, providing its customers with a new vision of the world centered around the ethos that Apple represents. This new world that Apple provided even went beyond the products that it offered, towards an in-store experience that has completely changed the way customers look at retail stores.

The resultant integration and newfound importance that Apple products plays in one’s life, and the success with which its products and services have contributed towards allowing its customers to do more to express themselves, be different and think differently. This desire to be unique, I believe is something that appeals to most of us, and Apple delivered on its promise by being leaders for many years in making new innovative products easier for us to use, making it easier for us to express our individuality with these products, thereby capturing the hearts and minds of many around the world, personalizing the experiences they had with their Apple products and forging a relationship with Apple that has gone from being solely utilitarian towards something deeper. It is no wonder that people like my friend are so ready to defend Apple and the quality of its products – because Apple has done more than just provide technological products for them, it has provided a way of life that they believe in and any attack on Apple is an attack on their way of life.

As further proof, I leave you with the latest Apple Christmas ad which showcases exactly what I am talking about – namely that Apple helps people who are inherently different, to be able to express themselves in a creative and unique way to the ones they love. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

Please join in on the discussion through the comments section below so that we may better understand how businesses can be more effective at offering the right products to the right people around the world.